November 13th

Chapter 1: Anniversary

I've gotten used to having more people in the house, but I constantly find it funny thinking of who they are.

For one thing, Sadie, the War Dog and general of the Ghost Council. Director has her staying with us for extra protection while we keep an eye on the town.

Then, there's two ex Cloaked Magicians. All the time we've spent avoiding Cloaked Magicians and now they're living with us. The world sure is funny.

I've had my moments of wariness about both of them, but more specifically Zack. I heard bad things about him, and I always figured that he was just like his father. Now that I've spent more time around him, though, I was wrong.

He reminds me a lot of Olivia.

We finished up breakfast as Glitch came up from the basement, yawning. He wasn't much of a morning person, but he didn't want Zack and Skylar walking to school after his and Zack's apartment got destroyed by Cloaked Magicians. Skylar got up from the table and went into the living room to go put on her shoes. Zack stayed at the table, looking at his bookbag for a few moments, seemingly in a daze.

"You okay, Zack?" I sat across from him.

He looked at me, startled as though he forgot I was sitting there. He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and looked back down at his bookbag. He seemed sad.

"Is it okay if I stayed home, Ms. Anne?"

He's never asked that before. Even when he had a cold, he tried to brave it out and go to school anyway, and Skylar convinced him to go to the nurse and they sent him home for having a fever.

"Well, if you don't feel like going to school, I'm not going to make you. Education's important, but missing a day here and there won't hurt you."

I told him that when he felt bad for missing school, being sick. He only missed a day and a half. Plus, I figure I'm not his legal guardian. Glitch sort of took up that role, being his fake big brother.

But, I was compelled to ask, "Can I ask why, though?"

"I'm uh... feeling sick." He murmured.

My lie detector went off in my head, but even if I didn't have it, he didn't sound very sure of it. He didn't look sick. At least, compared to the last time.

"Want to try that again?" I asked, fighting away the wariness that crept in. He's never lied to me, so why is he lying about being sick? Is something going to happen at school that he knows about?

His eyes widened. I think he must have forgotten about my power.

"It's okay if you don't want to say why... but also forgive me for being a little wary. If you don't go to school and Skylar does, and something bad happens today-"

"Oh, no!" Zack said, holding up his hand, "No... I know I'm supposed to be there to protect Skylar. I'll still go if you're worried about that..."

I felt awkward. That's not what I was getting at. I was trying to say that, if he's aware something is about to go down and he's willingly letting Skylar go, then he'd be putting Skylar in danger. But, I should have known. Zack seems to like Skylar a lot. He'd never do anything to put her in harm's way.

"No, no..." I shook my head, "I just meant, that..."

"Zack, are the Cloaked Magicians going to attack the school?" Skylar called from the other room, "Do you know if they're planning to?"

"No," he said, then laughed, "Sorry, Ms. Anne, I misunderstood where you were going with that."

Skylar appeared from around the corner, giving me a scathing look, "Zack's not evil, Mom."